A few days later, Han Sishu came to the restaurant to eat and brought two newspapers to Hu Qiongfang.

One is the county’s daily newspaper, and the other is a famous provincial newspaper!

The illustration used by the county newspaper was a photo of Han Sishu wearing a dust-proof suit and inspecting the kitchen of a fast food restaurant.

The picture selected by the provincial newspaper was a scene of a long queue at the food window of Fangjie Restaurant during the lunch rush.

In the photo, Hu Qiongfang is wearing a dust cap and a cotton mask, revealing only a pair of beautiful eyes, smiling as she serves food to customers. On one side of the window, the queue is so long that it's hard to see the end.

The headline of the provincial newspaper was exactly as Han Sishu had expected: "Self-employed individuals transformed into civilized business operators, Provincial Highway 336 setting off a new trend of civilization."

The article compares the previous business chaos on Provincial Highway 336 and highly praises civilized and honest merchants like Hu Qiongfang. It calls on individual business owners across the province to learn from Comrade Hu Qiongfang and become a "civilized individual business owner in the new era" who is civilized, honest, hygienic and dedicated.

Holding the provincial newspaper in her hand, Hu Qiongfang's eyes turned red and she couldn't help but raise her hands to cover her eyes.

Just last year, she couldn't make ends meet in the village, so she had to take her two children and set up a stall on the provincial road to make a living. She was laughed at by the villagers at the time.

Some of her close relatives kindly reminded her not to show up in public like that. As a widow, if she was selling lunch boxes and welcoming customers outside, and it spread like a bad reputation, how would she and her two children survive in the future?

She hesitated at that time, but there was really no other way. In order to support her two children, she had to bite the bullet and continue the lunch box business.

Who would have thought that the lunch box business, which was laughed at and looked down upon in the countryside, would be praised by the provincial newspaper and praised as "a role model for working women in the new era"...

How could a country woman selling lunch boxes like her deserve the praise from the provincial newspaper?

Han Sishu stood by until Hu Qiongfang calmed down, then he smiled and comforted her:

"We're just getting started. I haven't told you another piece of good news yet."

"The reporter from the provincial TV station saw this report and thought your story was very representative. They decided to send a reporter here to shoot a news feature film about your hotel, especially you, Comrade Hu."

"What?!" Hu Qiongfang widened her eyes in surprise.

"I say, the reporter from the provincial TV station is also coming to interview you! Comrade Hu, congratulations! You and your fast food restaurant will soon become a well-known individual restaurant in the province."

It was May 1986. In many remote rural areas, people still had certain prejudices and discrimination against self-employed individuals. Many self-employed people like Hu Qiongfang, who actively or passively started their own entrepreneurial journey in the late 1980s, became the first group of people to become rich in this era many years later.

On May 26, 1986, a news feature film featuring Hu Qiongfang and her Fangjie Hotel was officially broadcast on H Province TV!

In order to watch this news feature film on time, Uncle Hu used his connections and spent a lot of money to buy someone an original imported 18-inch color TV.

When the TV was moved into the store, the neighbors were shocked.

Many families doing business along the provincial road have already bought black-and-white TVs. Especially those "the first bosses to get rich" like Mr. Tong at the gas station, have long been accustomed to watching TV every night.

However, Grandma Hu's family and Hu Qiongfang and her family never bought any.

It’s not that they can’t afford it, but the two families are just too busy and have no time to watch TV.

Besides, a TV, even a black and white one, is not cheap.

But now it’s different, their daughter Qiongfang is on TV!

The news was actually from the provincial TV station! In ancient times, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say "bring honor to the family", right?

When the news reached Yangshuling Village, the elders of the Hu family were so excited that they did not sleep all night. Early the next morning, they took a car to the Hu Family Restaurant, waiting to watch the TV interview with Hu Qiongfang together in the evening.

The elders of the Hu family no longer despised Hu Qiongfang for being a widow. They even held Grandpa Hu's hand and sighed repeatedly, saying that he had given birth to a good daughter who would bring honor to the family. They also said that since Jiang Leping had passed away, their old Hu family should take Hu Qiongfang back.

If there is to be smoke coming out of this ancestral tomb, it should be the ancestral tomb of the Hu family.

Does it have anything to do with the Jiang family?

Grandpa Hu smiled but said nothing.

If it were a year ago, if the old men in the clan were willing to make the decision for his daughter and agree to bring the three of them back home, and give Hu Qiongfang a small piece of residential land and some food-producing land, Grandpa Hu would definitely be very grateful to the clan.

But now?

You don’t come to help when someone needs help, so who are you to add icing on the cake?

Grandpa Hu was not a snob. He just felt that his daughter was no longer the widow who needed to rely on a little bit of charity from the Hu family to survive with her child.

Besides, what's wrong with the widow?

Hu Fengnian's daughter, even without a man, can still make a name for herself on her own!

At around eight o'clock in the evening, the provincial TV station's "News Story" began broadcasting.

“Here it comes!”

"Don't talk, just listen carefully!"

At the entrance of Hu's Restaurant, there is a square table with a brand new color TV on it, and the volume has been turned up to the maximum.

At this time, the parking lot in front of the Hu Family Restaurant was already crowded with people. People from the Hu family, relatives and friends from Yangshuling Village, employees of Fangjie Restaurant, and nearby neighbors all came over to watch the fun.

These days, it is already very enviable for ordinary people to be featured in the county newspaper.

What’s more, Hu Qiongfang was appearing in a news feature film produced by the provincial television station!

I heard that this feature film will only interview one person in each episode. To be frank, even the secretary and the mayor of Shuangfeng Town are not qualified to be on this news column.

"Why would the provincial TV station interview an individual business owner like Hu Qiongfang?" This is a common question among nearby villagers.

Soon, accompanied by the deep voice of the host of the provincial TV station, the story of Hu Qiongfang was slowly presented on the color TV, like a movie.

The story begins with Hu Qiongfang's self-narration.

"My name is Hu Qiongfang. I'm a self-employed person who just started selling boxed lunches on Provincial Highway 336 last year."

"Why did you think of setting up a stall on the provincial road? Because my husband has passed away. As a widow, I can't make a living in the village. Later, my daughter encouraged me to set up a stall on the provincial road to sell boxed lunches."

"At first, I just wanted to earn a few dollars a day, and I would be satisfied if I could support my mother and my daughter..."